Verizon’s Samsung Galaxy Tab getting a major update, including TouchWiz UX

If you own a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE on Verizon, you are now been treated to an OTA that brings the controversial TouchWiz UX to the Tab. The update, version  I905, brings a bunch of new features, mostly from TW, support for Bluetooth 3.0, DivX, security patches and much more. After you update, there's no way to go back t stock Honeycomb if you don't like TW UX without rooting.

 

So if you haven't gotten the update yet, check for update in settings, make sure you are connected to Wi-Fi to download the 351MB file so you don't use all your bandwidth.

 

Here's the full list of changes:

• Device features, Improvements & fixes
  • Fixed issue that caused email to stay bold (reflecting an unread email) even though the user has read the email.
  • Google Security Patches have been applied.
  • TouchWiz user interface has been updated.
  • Wi-Fi Enhanced Connectivity
  • DivX
  • BT 3.0 support has been added
  • Additional support has been added for more wireless Wi-Fi routers.
• Applications & Widgets
  • The following apps and widgets have been added:
    • AllShare
    • Memo, Penmemo
    • Photo Editor
    • My Files
    • SocialHub
    • WorldClock
  • The following apps and widgets have been enhanced
    • Music Player(TouchWiz)
    • Video Player(TouchWiz)
• Email & Messaging
  • Enterprise ActiveSync supports additional security policies.
• Enterprise application support
  • Built-in support for industry standard VPN clients like Cisco AnyConnect.
  • Strong encryption for data in transmission, hardware Encryption and remote wipe capability.
  • EnhancedMobileDeviceManagement (MDM) through partnerships with Sybase and Afaria clients.

Samsung shipped a million units of the Galaxy Note, hints at a U.S. release ‘next year

When Samsung announced the Samsung Galaxy Note, it received a lot of bad press, with people saying it wont sell, but turns out Samsung knows what they are doing after all. There is a market for people who want a 5-inch plus phone, and to prove that that announced that they have shipped one million units globally to date, and that's not even counting the US. According to Samsung, it's making most of it's movement in France, Germany, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and will be available here in the US "next year."

 

Samsung’s flagship smart device Galaxy Note has reached 1 million global shipping.

 

Samsung Electronics said on the 29th that it has shipped more than 1 million units of Galaxy Note globally. The worldwide sales of Galaxy Note are also on the rise in Europe and Asia including France, Germany, Hongkong and Taiwan. The rapid global sales of Galaxy Note are notable since it is creating a new market for something between smartphone and tablet pc. The speed of the global sales is expected to accelerate further next year when it will be available in the US.   Recently, Financial Times reviewed highly of Galaxy Note, commenting it as“a happy medium for consumers who want to carry just one device, rather than both a smartphone and a tablet and whatever other portable gadget they pick up on their way out”.   A Samsung official also said “1 million global shipping of Galaxy Note means it has well positioned itself as a market creator,” also adding “Samsung will continuously strengthen its leadership in the global smartphone market as well as create new markets with innovative devices.”

GTA III modifications appearing in Android version

The anniversary edition of Grand Theft Auto III is quite simply magnificent. It truly is a mark of how far technology has advanced in the last ten years. And in true Android fashion, GTA III can be customised with just a tiny little bit of work.

It turns out that modifying the Android version of the game is in fact as simple as modifying the PC version. By adding files to the directory on the SD card. As an added bonus, it turns out the PC and Android versions of the game are so similar, that many PC modifications actually work on the Android version so you can soup up your cars and add custom textures to your heart's content. 

Hit the source link for more information if you fancy a go, and check out one happy modifiers video after the break.

Deal of the Day: Seidio Innocell 3200mAh Extended Battery for AT&T Galaxy S II

The Dec. 30 ShopAndroid.com Deal of the Day is the Seidio Innocell 3200mAh Extended Battery for the AT&T Galaxy S II. It effectively doubles the amount of juice in your Galaxy S II, includes a replacement battery door with Seidio's signature soft-touch coating and keepse things as slim as possible. And it's available today only for just $49.95. Get yours while supplies last!

Samsung says Galaxy Note is coming to America soon

Samsung’s plus-sized Galaxy Note smartphone has proven to be a surprise hit, as the company announced today that they’ve shipped a whopping 1 million units worldwide. For an expensive and ostensibly niche phone, that’s a gigantic figure, especially considering that it’s only available in Europe, South Korea and a few other markets. US fans still have to import a Galaxy Note if they want to try out the 5.3-inch monster for themselves, but that may change soon enough: the company noted in its congratulatory announcement that it will be coming to the US in 2012.

Previously we’d only seen the barest hints that the Galaxy Note was headed stateside, in the form of a pair of FCC filings with AT&T bands. That’s indicative but not definitive - we’ve seen plenty of devices go through the FCC without ever getting a US release, particularly with AT&T’s internationally compatible radios. But if Samsung thinks the Note is coming to America, we won’t argue, and with consumers’ desire for bigger and bigger screens it could be a veritable hit.

For the uninitiated, the Galaxy Note represents the middle ground between Samsung’s high-end smartphones and tablets. The star of the show is a 5.3-inch 1280×800 screen using Samsung’s much-loved Super AMOLED display technology, with the added benefit of a Wacom digitizer and stylus. The specs are no slouch, either, with a dual-core 1.4Ghz processor and a full gigabyte of RAM underneath. Reviews from overseas have been overwhelmingly positive, despite the large size, and Korea is currently enjoying an LTE variant. We’ll be keeping a very close watch on the Galaxy Note, anxiously awaiting its US debut. A Note to Samsung: shipping it with Ice Cream Sandwich would be a great way to justify the wait.

Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus Software Tour

Since we've already shown you most of what's new in the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android that ships with the GSM version of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, this video is going to show you a couple things that Verizon has added and then we'll go through some of the things that I personally really like, as well as a few things that might be confusing or frustrating for some people.

I really like the on-screen back, home, and recent tasks buttons that have replaced Android's usual hardware navigation buttons. It's reminiscent of the old Windows Mobile which was completely usable using only the touch screen. Unfortunately, Google didn't put a whole lot of thought into this new user interface design since there are still instances where the navigation buttons just don't do anything. Then there's the menu button. Many of the bundled apps now include a vertical ellipses icon that represents the menu. Sometimes this menu button appears in the lower right corner next to the recent applications button, and I think that's a great place for it. However, many times the menu button will relocate to completely different and inconsistent locations depending on which app you're in (leaving the lower right corner spot empty). This oversight makes Android Ice Cream Sandwich feel like there's no cohesive design plan for the user interface.

I didn't have much luck with 3rd party apps either. The main one that I would want to use on a smartphone is the Facebook app, and Google has decided to block the Facebook app from integrating with thecontacts app. There isn't even any message explaining this to the user. It just doesn't work. Then there's the issue where if I would forget to manually quit Facebook, the phone's battery will die in about 4 hours. There wasn't any warning about this rapid battery eating either, so if you've got a Galaxy Nexus, be sure to keep a frequent eye on the task manager and battery usage graphs.

Samsung Galaxy Note Headed To The US Early Next Year

Yesterday we heard that Samsung had shipped over one million Galaxy Note handsets, and one thing we missed in the announcement was that Samsung has now officially confirmed that the Galaxy Note is headed to the US in 2012.

We have previously heard a rumor that the Galaxy Note would launch with US mobile carrier AT&T in January, this has still yet to be confirmed by AT&T, although now it looks like a possible date considering the recent Samsung announcement.

Samsung hasn’t given an exact release date as yet but we suspect the Galaxy Note will be available in the US sometime in January 2012.

Samsung Galaxy S III/3D Might Feature Quad Core Processor

The first two Galaxy flagships – the Galaxy S and the Galaxy S II have had great success and Samsungare doing their best to make sure the next generation Galaxy flagship will grab everyone’s attention as well.

The  original Galaxy S was a great device but it wasn’t perfect. The Galaxy S II on the other hand is still one of the best phones on the market and most phones that are put against it end up performing worse in comparison.

With the Galaxy S III, they’re looking to provide customers with the best of technology and rumors indicate that Samsung might put a quad core processor in the device. We’ve heard several rumors in the past. Some indicate that the phone will feature a 1.8GHz Dual Core processor while others suggest a Quad Core processor (Clock Speed 1.2 – 1.5GHz ?). We think that there’s more chance of it being the latter. Samsung have been making the impossible in the past few years and next year might be no exception. But if they’re unable to perfect it, they might play it safe and fit a dual core processor with faster clock speed.

As for the naming, there’s a possibility that it would be called the Galaxy S 3D since Samsung have been studying the 3D technology for a while and trying to find the best way to integrate it into the product. The other rumored specification are:

• Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0
• 4.65″ HD Super AMOLED Display with 1280×720 Pixels Resolution
• 1.5GB – 2 GB RAM

We can most definitely expect to see the device launched at MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona from 27th February – 1st March. Let’s hope that Samsung does indeed give us a quad core device

Samsung Galaxy S to get a Value pack update instead of ICS

Despite Samsung's recent announcementthat it is to reconsider its decision about the Galaxy S ICS update, it appears that the former flagship won't get an official taste of the latest Android ROM.

According to the latest rumor theSamsung I9000 Galaxy S will get a Value pack update, instead of the real Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The value pack update is said to improve the user experience by bringing some of the ICS features to the Gingerbread ROM. Better web browsing, multi-tasking and new widgets were explicitly mentioned, but there's no saying if other apps will be updated as well.

Samsung did a similar thing with their low-end Bada phones, Wave525 and Wave533, which were deemed unable to run Bada 2.0 and were promised a Value pack update instead.

Obviously, Samsung decided that the I9000 Galaxy S hardware would be unable to provide satisfactory user experience with Android 4.0 ICS and TouchWiz on top. Now that might as well be true, but the Galaxy S is fully capable of running the stock ICS, as proved by the guys over at XDA.

So maybe it would have been best if Samsung released an optional ICS update without the TouchWiz launcher and let people decide which one they prefer, but unfortunately that didn't happen. Of course, you can still have that, but you will have to go the dark ways of manual flashing and voiding your warranty in the process

Samsung aims to ship 374M phones in 2012, to rival Nokia

Samsung had an excellent year in term of phone sales in 2011, and it hopes to replicate its success in 2012. According to Korea Economic Daily the company expects to see a growth in total sales by as much as 15%.

This means that the Koreans hope to sell about 374 million phones (including 150 million smartphones) next year, which should be enough to almost equal Nokia as the top cell phone manufacturer. The Finns are expected to ship about 399 million phones next year, so the gap between those two is as minimal as it gets.

Just two years ago Nokia had almost twice the market share of Samsung (36.4% vs 19.5%), so the Koreans are really making significant progress towards their goal of becoming the world's number one manufacturer.

And we also shouldn't forget that Nokia failed to meet its sales target in 2011, whereas Samsung exceeded it, so we might see a reversal of roles even sooner than expected. Then again, 2011 was a transitional year for Nokia and things should be much different now that it has finally started selling its first WP smartphones.

Is this the Samsung I9500 Galaxy S 3 first camera sample?

The first three months of the next year should see the official announcements of plenty of new smartphones, but few of them are more hotly anticipated than the Samsung Galaxy S3. And what you see here might be the first image captured with the upcoming Android flagship.

Admittedly, the evidence that points to this conclusion isn't rock-solid. It's all based on the EXIF of the photo, which says that it's captured with the Samsung I9500 and that's a model number higher than that of both the Galaxy S II (I9100) and the Galaxy Nexus (I9250). And since the only smartphone worthy of such position is the expected Galaxy S II successor, logic suggests that we are looking at a Galaxy S 3 photo sample.

Plus the EXIF shows coordinates that belong to one of the Samsung centers in Korea.

The first thing to note here is that the image has 5MP resolution and we can't see Samsung releasing the Galaxy S 3 with a 5MP camera, given that the Galaxy S II already has an 8MP snapper. Also, the EXIF data is relatively easy to fake, but we guess if someone was to try and fool us he would write in more believable information across all the fields (notice the 50s exposure time?).

Android nears 50% mark in the US, comScore reports

comScore has just published their new report on the US smartphone market and it turns out that there are no dramatic changes to be witnessed. Android continued to be the fastest growing mobile platform around and even the launch of the iPhone 4S wasn't enough for iOS to match its growth.

In the three months ending on November 30, 46.9% of the smartphone users in the US had a Google OS device. That's 3.1 percent points higher than the Android market share for the previous three months.

iOS came in a fairly distant second - Apple's proprietary platform gained 1.4 percent point and had a market share of 28.7%. RIM's struggles continue as BlackBerry OS lost further 3.1 percent points and now only powers 16.6% of the US smartphones.

Symbian and Microsoft didn't have a particularly good time in the market either, the two platforms dropping 0.5 and 0.3 percent points of their respective market shares.

Top Mobile OEMs 3 Month Avg. Ending Nov. 2011 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Aug. 2011
	Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers
	Aug-11	Nov-11	Point Change
Total Mobile Subscribers	100.0%	100.0%	N/A
Samsung	25.3%	25.6%	0.3
LG	21.0%	20.5%	-0.5
Motorola	14.0%	13.7%	-0.3
Apple	9.8%	11.2%	1.4
RIM	7.1%	6.5%	-0.6

But for all the success that Android is having, the second part of the comScore report shows that Apple is the single company to register the biggest growth in the past three months. The Cupertino-based company now owns 11.4% of the cell phone market (that includes smartphones and featuresphones) and is breathing down Motorola's neck for the third spot.

At the top Samsung extended its lead over the second placed LG and now accounts for more than a quarter of all mobile devices sold in the US.

Top Smartphone Platforms 3 Month Avg. Ending Nov. 2011 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Aug. 2011
	Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers
	Aug-11	Nov-11	Point Change
Total Smartphone Subscribers	100.0%	100.0%	N/A
Google	43.8%	46.9%	3.1
Apple	27.3%	28.7%	1.4
RIM	19.7%	16.6%	-3.1
Microsoft	5.7%	5.2%	-0.5
Symbian	1.8%	1.5%	-0.3